CAIRO: Police arrested four students in the delta town of Kafr El Sheikh in early morning raids, accusing them of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a Brotherhood source told The Daily Star Egypt.
“This is part of the crackdown escalating from the regime’s side, said Ibrahim Al Houdaiby, an advisor to the Brotherhood’s website www.ikhwanweb.com.
He speculates that the regime is cracking down on the Brotherhood, the largest and most well-organized opposition group, in the run-up to next month’s referendum on the constitutional amendments. Elections to the Shura Council, (the Upper House of Parliament) will also be held in April.
According to Al Houdaiby “the regime wants no opposition on the streets at that time. They are trying to have Gamal Mubarak inherit the Presidency from his father and they don’t want anyone to oppose that. This crackdown will not end until they are sure they have destroyed all opposition.
The regime has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood in the last several months, and currently holds more than 300 members in detention, including third-in-command Khayrat El-Shatir, who has been referred to a military court along with 29 others. They stand accused of terrorism and financing a banned organization.
Members of the group, which is officially tolerated but frequently faces crackdowns, won a fifth of the seats in the People’s Assembly elections in 2005. Since then, they have been subjected to a pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention, according to an annual human rights report released last week by the US State Department.
